El Chorro '25
At 16 Wyresdale Road, rain was lashing against the window again. The sun had set long ago (current time 5pm), and I can't feel my hands from yet another bone chilling commute home. I haven't even climbed this month, with my last log being a freezing outing to Wolfhole on the 30th November where each toe became a little icicle - all the British rock is too cold, wet, or seepy to do any meaningful climbing in December (and no, bouldering isn't meaningful!). Feeling beyond hope, I pop the kettle on to try and tease some feeling back into my blue hands, but that's when it hits me! I'm off to El Chorro next week!!
Of last year's squad, Tom and Chris had "ticked" El Chorro, feeling that they didn't have much to come back for, and Jonathan had to work on his dissertation over Christmas. As a result, only Sam and I were keen to go again this year, with Tom and Chris heading on the Brown family holiday to Siurana instead. Sam is an organisational beast and flies into action checking calendars, browsing flights, booking accomodation; but most importantly of all, he's concocting an amazing squad of 8 people to come along and sample the sunny Spanish sport.
The squad ends up being Sam and Nellie, Maddie and Ross, Lydia, Kate, Tom 'Nobby' Johnson, and me. Eight turns out to be a perfect number because it allowed us to book a little 8 bunk cottage at the Finca called El Gato, rather than dossing around on the communal bunks and suffering the chaos of the communal kitchen like last year. I'm looking forward to it already!
The Wednesday before we fly, we have a gear packing evening at Wyresdale, trying to pack all of our climbing gear into the hold bags. One by one, everyone turns up with the climbing gear they need to sort out on my bed until a squad of seven of us is sat around organising racks, counting screwgates, and debating how many guide plates to bring. But wait - where's Nobby?? A quick phone call reveals he's running half an hour late, so we sit around dossing in my room for a while. When Nobby does arrive, he's forgotten half of his climbing stuff anyway! Classic Nobby, head in the clouds. Maddie kindly sticks around afterwards and gives me a holiday trim, a surprisingly good one considering it was her second ever - just as well, because it's the LUMC Christmas meal on Thursday!
Day 1 - Saturday 13th January
With Sam, Nellie, Maddie, and Lydia already in Manchester, Ross, Nobby, Kate, and I all wake up early to get the 5:13am train to the airport. We walk down through through town, seeing some people still outside Gens from the night before and arrive at the station right on time for our train and hop on board feeling a bit sleepy.
We have to change at Preston, so wander down to the doors as the train slows down. I stand by the door on the left of the train, guessing that's where it will open. The stakes couldn't be higher because Nobby plans top push the losing guesser onto the tracks. Kate, however, has other ideas. She breezes cooly to the door on the right and stands next to it with quiet confidence. "I'm always right" she claims boldly, and it turns out to be so when that door slides open a few seconds later. We're all stunned into silence by being in the presence of an omniscient being, although we later find out that she meant to say "It's always the right". Apparently she takes this train often. Oh well, I just about avoid being dashed on the tracks by sleepy Nobby and tuck into my hearty breakfast, 4 packets of crisps.
I catch a few winks of sleep on the next train, and we're at Manchester Airport before I know it. We zoom easily through security in five minutes flat, despite neither me or Ross emptying our nalgene bottles, and we're reunited with the others outside the duty free shops. Nellie gets busy, starting on a very comprehensive shopping list for once we land in Malaga. The gate is announced, so we all pop our helmets on and walk through the airport to the gate, probably looking like very nervous flyers.
On the flight, it seems like every other passenger is there for the Malaga marathon, with talk of nutrition, electrolytes, negatives splits, and PRs echoing around the plane as we take off from Manchester. I've got a fairly bad ear infection at this point, so I'm just praying that my ears don't explode as we gain altitude. Out of the window, I see Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight fly by and chat to the nice lady next to me who's just had her hip replaced and is heading out for some sunshine and recuperation. As we descend into Malaga, I get a great view of El Chorro out of the window, with Frontales and Encantadas rising up to nearly the level of the plane and looking very big indeed.
Landing in Malaga, the flight attendants are chatting in Spanish about how Brits come to Spain for the sun, but the weather was actually nicer in Manchester. To a degree, it's true - we step onto the tarmac and it's fairly cool and cloudy; terrible conditions for the beach but good connies for climbing!
Inside, the biometric passport gates don't work for me, so I join a very long through to go manually through passport control. Sam and Nellie persisted with the e-gates and go straight through, followed by everyone else in a shorter queue. I'm left in a queue that isn't moving at all because a man in front of me has the wrong documents, and stand for probably half an hour in the same place. I tell the gang to go shopping and I'll catch them in town - the time is ticking to get the 1543 train, the next one is after 5!
Because of this, I miss the amazing scene of Nobby being wheeled through the airport on the baggage trolley. Aware that it's a bit of a silly look, and with people fretting that he might be told off, he utters the immortal words "don't worry, if anyone looks at me I'll just start shaking and dribbling". Little did he know that Nobby "shake and dribble" Johnson might just stick.
I catch up with the rest of the crew just before they get on the very busy metro, and we leave Sam and Ross in the central station "Maria Zambrano" to watch the bags, get train tickets, and sort cash while the rest of us head off on the 15 minute walk to shop in Lidl. We're very well equipped with Nellie's comprehensive list so the shopping is a breeze, the only problem was the quantity - it was a lot of shopping! A very kind Spanish lady at the checkout helped me to acquire some bags for life (from the other side of the shop?), so I let her scan her lidl plus app on our €150+ shop (English lidl plus didn't work). She seemed very pleased indeed!
Carrying the shop back to the station was a bit of a slog, but we made it with plenty of rests. The only issue was a slight time crunch, with the risk of missing the 1543 train feeling very real. We arrive at the station with minutes to spare, but Sam is still away getting cash! We wait down by the barriers and he appears a bit too late, cashless, seemingly a bit miffed that the machine didn't translate to Cumbrian. Not to worry, we'll wait a couple of hours in Malaga for the next train, and get some suncream while we're at it.
Realising that our tickets weren't transferable to the next train, we sadly resign ourselves to forking out another €5 each, but Nobby wouldn't be so easily defeated. Grabbing the wad of old tickets (and Maddie for support) he marches off to the ticket office to coerce them into changing the time on the ticket: "Don't worry guys, I'll charm them!". Amazingly, he returns with 8 free tickets for the correct train service and we all head over to hop aboard as the sun starts to get low in the sky.
The sunset journey through the Spanish countryside was beautiful, and there was just enough light at the end of the hour's journey to marvel at the cliffs of Frontales as the train came to a halt in El Chorro station. I take the classic photo of the squad in front of the crag while the train rumbles out of the station, leaving just us and many, many kilograms of baggage alone in the quiet evening.
Resigning ouselves to the plod, everyone shares the weight of personal baggage, climbing kit, and shopping, and we start the long plod toward the Finca. Echoes of "are we nearly there yet?" filtered up the track as the last of the light slipped away and left us toiling toward the Finca, stopping to shake out regularly. The final hill was particulary tricky, especially for Ross who had the big 20kg kit bag, Nellie's suitcase, and a heavy bag of shopping with a broken handle.
Stepping through the door to our nice little cottage 'El Gato' was a relief, and Nellie knocks up a simple meal of instant tortillas and salad which was great, then we all head promptly to bed with plans of a chill single pitch day tomorrow.
Day 2 - Sunday 14th January
Surprisingly early in the morning, despite still feeling quite ill, I'm up and having breakfast - psyched to get going and touch some rocks. The only other person similarly psyched is Ross, so we pack our bags and strike up the hill to Encantadas, marvelling at the perfect crispy cool morning conditions.
To warm up, Ross leads Sam's project from last year, Programa Genocida (6b+), then I lead a cool 6a up the rib to the left of it. Feeling like he's understanding the rock type already, Ross heads up the 7a+ to the right, Manon Tropo, with a striking roof high on the route. He sits on the rope a little bit, feeling out the holds and positions, but finds the roof pretty insurmountable for the first day so bails off.
At long last (around midday!) the rest of the squad appear at the crag and get going on the easier lines on the left of Encantadas. It's now quite warm, so both Ross and I are pretty smug about having enjoyed the nice morning conditions. I get on a very short 6b, 'Variation' which is surprisingly tricky, requiring lots of finger locking and grunting in only 15m or so. Ross heads up the steep but juggy 'Bohem Destrell' 6a+, before I choose my next route, a 6a+ called 'Poum Poum Ram Ram'. This short looking route starts in a bush, so I wade to the start and pull onto the polished holds. Embarassingly, the holds are so shiny that my left foot slips and I fall off! A sign of things to come? Hopefully not!
Before leaving Encantadas, I try my luck on the 6c+ left of Programa Genocida. Low down on the route, there's a tricky and thin mantle which I couldn't manage, falling off it a couple of times. Ross heads up to clean the route and grumpily dogs his way up it, getting quite warm in the midday sun, and eventually bailing up the 6a.
With everyone feeling a bit done with Encantadas because it was quickly becoming a very warm sun trap, we all plod over to a crag that's new to me, Cocina Caliente, which is just a bit along the hillside. As a result of the UKC rave reviews, I tie in and head up 'Toast', a very cool looking slabby 6b. The crux involved thin slab climbing with a technical foot sequence, lunging rightwards into a jug from tenuous holds, followed by almost the same move in reverse. I slipped off the first time, but managed to do the moves second go, and follow the run out bolting to the chains.
At Cocina Caliente, we also see Mary the Mantis, a very big and green preying mantis. I did nearly squash her when lowering off Toast though - sorry Mary!
Ross also does Toast, then I head up a very cool looking hanging groove 'Autovia de las Cabras' 6a+, which was very traddy and fun, leading to great exposure at the top. I forget to pose on the exposed rib, but Ross would never miss such an opportunity, giving this great photo.
To round out a surprisingly productive day (I'm still quite ill), I head up a 5c that Kate put the draws in but nobody fancied getting them out. It was surprisingly tricky and poorly bolted - fair play to Kate!
Day 3 - Monday 15th January
We fancied a multipitch day today, with a couple of teams aiming for Valentines Day as a good first multipitch. The forecast threatened rain so doing a route that's easy to abseil off made sense. Looking to avoid the queues, Lydia and I head for the route next door, Bombay Sapphire 6b.
It's Lydia's first ever sport multipitch, so we do a little bit of practice at the bottom before setting off. Lydia takes first lead, a slightly spooky 5c pitch with a couple of damp holds that she gets up very smoothly, then I do a great 5c corner pitch up to the second belay. Another smooth pitch from Lydia brings us up to the belay before the crux 6b pitch, which is my lead. It's really cool thin slab climbing, with one hard move involving a big rockover onto a decent right foot then padding delicately up the slab after a nervous clip. A second hard move exits a little niche where there's a good rest, and steps a long way left onto very poor feet which allows you to tickle upwards into a good jug and finish the pitch on easier ground. Lydia seconds the pitch with ease, despite the heavy rucksack, and gears up for her next lead. I try to psych her up for the lead with some completely unmotivational encouragement such as "Pretend it's NUBS!", and "Get psyched like it's a comp!", to which she fires back flatly "I don't think I've been fully psyched for anything in my entire life". Oh well. We both thought this pitch was surprisingly sparsely bolted and tricky for a 5b pitch, and Lydia had a bit of a wobble leading it but was soon at the next belay regardless, having wadded through.
While Lydia was leading the pitch, I was able to look to the right and see Nellie nearby seconding the steep crux pitch of Valentine's Day. Having managed to get through the steep crimps, she's nearly joined Sam at the belay when I hear a shout of "rock!!" quickly followed by an "oh shit" from above. Looking over, I see the 'rock' falling quickly, but some cards are fluttering through the air behind it. After a moment, I realise that it's not a rock, it's Nellie's phone! Luckily, it didn't hit anyone, and even more luckily it landed in a bush on the ledge below, allowing it to be picked up later. Sadly, the same couldn't be said of Nellie's driving licence and bank cards which fluttered off down the crag, but at least her Atkinson's loyalty card was later found!
After Lydia got a little bit of on-the-job learning from Nellie about guide mode vs slide mode, I climb up to join her and eyeball my final 6a+ pitch which is described as steep, pumpy, and loose by rockfax. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, and I've soon topped out of the route, watching the vultures circle overhead.
We both have a drink, pretty pleased with our success, having topped out at around the same time as Sam and Nellie. We then concentrate hard on abbing back down safely to the ground; conveniently we have Charlie's 80m rope which allows us to skip a few stances and makes the descent a doddle, despite it being my first time abseiling on a gri gri with a blocked rope. Turns out that steep 40m abseils make the steel cam in a gri gri quite hot, because some water in the rope sizzled as I abbed past it near the bottom. Exciting stuff! Glad to have got a successful route in (and not glazed Charlie's rope!), we flop around with Sam and Nellie at the bottom, waiting for Kate and Nobby to finish their descent.
Not fancying another big route, and (still!!) quite ill, I suggest that we wander back along the base of Frontales to Los Albercones; a friendly, single pitch sector where those psyched for more climbing could squeeze the odd route in. On the way, we see the impressive Poema de Roca cave and I also find a free orange on the floor lying next to the path - lucky me! At Albercones, I lounge around again, eating the orange watching Nellie have a stressful lead of Putiferio (6a). Nobby is also graced by a phone call from Mrs Johnson, while Kate, Lydia, and I all sit around feeling tired but happy with a good route completed.
We hear that Ross and Maddie have finished Amptrax, their route of choice for the day, so head back the the Finca to rendezvous with them and cook tea. On the way back, some novel techniques were used by Nellie and Lydia to pick some not-so low hanging fruit from the trees by the hotel.
Day 4 - Tuesday 16th December
I wake up this morning to a bit of drizzle and a poor forecast, so decide that enough is enough and I'll pop into Alora to see a doctor about my ear infection which is aching, stopping me from sleeping well, tiring me out, and just generally being a pain. Handily, it's also a great opportunity for me to pop to the supermarket and do our resupply shop to tie us over for the rest of the week.
Hopping on the annoyingly late (and further delayed) 1306 train at 1345, I'm soon in Alora and plodding up the very large hill to the town centre. These roads evoke not-so fond memories from last year, where Mum drove Tom, Jono, and I down the very tight and windy roads following a google maps special route.
Arriving at the health centre, I seem to be the only person there and the lady on reception looks glad to see me, despite not speaking a word of English. After some gesturing and back-and-forthing, my passport and GHIC have been processed and she brings me through to sit in the empty waiting room. Within 10 minutes I'm sat in the office with a doctor who speaks excellent English. Some quick checks were all he needed to type me a prescription at lightning speed and point me across the road to pharmacy. The pharmacist hands me my antibiotics, joking "bad day at the office?". "No," I reply, "bad day on holiday!".
I dash off quickly to the shops so I don't miss my train back to El Chorro. I whizz around Mercadona, quickly ticking off the shopping list (plus 5kg of oranges!) I'm left just looking for hummus when I spy some Cardiff Uni MC merch across the shop. I rush over and have a quick chat with them - turn's out they're cooking a full Christmas meal for everyone tonight, then planning a big multipitch day tomorrow. I leave them to it and plod back down the hill to the station, munching oranges as I go.
Feeling like I should at least climb one route today, I wander up to Los Perros and lead a (very soft) 6b+ and a very enjoyable 6a up a groove to the right. It's quite a pleasant little crag and very well bolted - exactly the chill evening session I was after. We all leave the crag, walking down to cook tea, but Nobby and Ross stay behing because they're determined to tick the crag. Using a borrowed headtorch, they both plough through all the routes and walk off in less than 2 hours - impressive stuff!
Day 5 - Wednesday 17th December
Feeling the antibiotics working already, I agree to go and lead Amptrax with Nellie today. We have an 'alpine start' with our alarms set for 6:30am and we get out the door very efficiently, walking along the track to Frontales in the dark and admiring the slither of moon.
By the time we arrive at the crag, plenty of light is showing in the sky, giving a very scenic view over El Chorro.
As a result of the antibiotics, I do a cheeky pre-route poo at the crag, wiping with rocks and only slightly dipping my knuckles into it. Walking back up the hill feeling light and bouncy, I sheepishly ask Nellie if she brought hand sanitiser. A sombre shake of her head leaves me scrubbing my hands with a little bit of water out the bottle. All of this would become much funnier in hindsight, giving me the nickname 'Brownfingers' for the rest of the trip.
Anyway, I walk along the scambly pitch (it would be more relaxing with one bolt near the end tbf), and Nellie joins me. I put my rock boots on and head up the first real pitch, not put off by the large wet streaks. It turns out to be a bit trickier than I bargained for at 5c, especially in one of the wet streaks where the crux was rocking over into a puddle. From this belay, I watch Nobby and Lydia below, also waiting to do Amptrax behind us. They've moved on from the crag nap phase of their morning, and I look down at Nobby doing his full yoga routine, clearly getting nice and limber for the route.
I link the next 5c and 6a pitch into one long one, which works really well. I found the 6a sequence a tad difficult to read, but it wasn't strenuous to hang around and work out. Nellie rests on the rope a bit, but is ultimately making steady progress up toward the traverse. The next 6a pitch is memorable, exposed, and about as tricky as the last one, bringing us to the belay at the start of the traverse. I get a quick photo of Nellie soaking up the exposure as I head off on the traverse. By this point, Nobby and Lydia had finally set off, and both tried the first pitch, with Nobby ultimately getting to the top and deciding to block lead the rest of the route. Now moving quickly, they're only a couple of pitches behind us.
The traverse is only hard psychologically because the climbing is actually quite steady, albeit a bit balancy, delicate, and very exposed. The crux is an off-balance step down, with only a wet pocket and poor pinch for balance, but I teeter across without any issues and get to the belay, just out of sight of Nellie. She soon leaves the belay and pokes nervously across the traverse, having the odd rest before passing each bolt. Luckily, Nellie climbs the crux very well and avoids taking the little swing, cruising over to join me at the belay. Looking across to the towering arete of Lluvia, I can see that Kate and Ross have already topped out and are having lunch watching us - get that team to the alps!
Having taken the bag on the traverse, I hang on to it to lead the 5b pitch that I assume will be a steady scramble to the top. It looks a little steep, but I pay no attention to the fact as I climb easily upwards into a small cave whick looks like it was once a vultures nest. I leave the cave on good holds, but immediately find myself quite pumped. "Tricky 5b pitch!!" I think to myself and remark down to Nellie. I come back down to the cave to shake out before taking a deep breath and blasting with surprising difficulty up the rest of the wall. Relieved not to have stumbled at the final hurdle, I belay Nellie up to join me, then link the final 2 pitches to the top which were thankfully much easier.
Topping out, I spot both Ross and Kate who've been waiting at the top for us for two hours already, having flown up Lluvia at breakneck pace. Reunited as a squad of four at the top, it remains for us to wait for Nobby and Lydia. Passing the time by sharing the brownfingers anecdote and just generally talking rubbish, we spend another two hours at the top waiting for Nobby and Lydia. A phone call tells us that they've let another team in front of them to do the top pitches. We soon confirm this, when that team appears and has a chat with us at the top. As well as telling us where Nobby and Lydia are, they also show me their topo suggesting that the 'tricky 5b' pitch is actually 6b+! Feeling validated, I settle down on top of a rocky pinnacle to wait for Nobby and Lydia to appear, watching the sun get closer and closer to the horizon. We get a text from Sam and Maddie saying they've finished their route, having done Bombay Sapphire today.
Nobby and Lydia finally join us, with Nobby absolutely bouncing as usual, but Lydia looking pretty wiped out by the long day on the wall carrying their huge bag. Maybe she would have fared better if Tom didn't turn up to El Chorro with enough insulation for Scottish winter belays! After quickly eating their lunch (at 5pm!), we all head down the Amptrax descent together. The squad seems in good nick, except from Lydia saying she's delirious, and being immobilised by hysterics with Kate and Nellie upon seeing a train come out the tunnel. We were perhaps a tad dehydrated. Not to worry, we all made it back to the Finca in one piece, having had a great day!
Day 6 - Thursday 18th December
Feeling like we should try hard at some point this holiday, Ross and I psych ourselves up for a day of single pitch climbing today. We walk in quite early to Castrojo to try the classic 7a+, Little Brown Baby. The route consists of steep jug pulling, followed by a tricky crux when the angle eases, then more climbing to the top.
Knowing I probably can't flash the grade, I tie in first to have a play around and put in the draws for Ross. Faffing in the steep section, I get to 4th clip before getting pumped and falling off. Deeply pumped and having little luck on the crux after pulling back on, I lower off for Ross to have a go. Ross does a little better and dogs his way up to the top, seeming to have mostly worked out the crux, but most importantly looking very cool along the way!
As he lowers off, an old American guy called Richard appears at the crag and asks us to pit a top rope up the 7a+ for him. While we change over for me to lead again, he's chatting to us about all sorts - including how he's travelled the world and finally settled down in El Chorro. Interested in his choice, I ask him "Why did you choose El Chorro of everywhere you've been?". Raising his hands, he gestures widely at our beautiful sunny surroundings; "Got any more dumb questions?" he replies, grinning at me.
Conceding that he's probably got quite a good point, I set off on my next go. This time I get a clip further, but still can't manage the crux, unable to clip off a small pocket and taking a bit of a ride. Disheartened, I feel the crux moves once more with Richard spraying beta from below, but decide it's probably not for me today, especially in the bright midday sunshine and lower off. On Ross' next go, he grabs the draw at the crux then dogs up the rest of the route to clean it, kindly swapping the draws for another group of Brits on the way down.
Deciding that we've had enough of being baked, Ross and I bid farewell to Richard and wander off down the hill to go and find the rest of the squad at Los Albercones. Ross leads some routes for Maddie to top-rope, so Nellie and I join Kate in looking for her quickdraw at the base of Lluvia where she'd dropped it the day before. Having no luck, and accepting that the quickdraw is probably gone forever, we plod back to Los Albercones.
Feeling like I should climb a route while at the crag, I set off on Zulu Express, a 6a+ that I vaguely recall Matt struggling quite a lot on last year. The bottom groove is steady, and there's even a stuck micro-stopper which eases the gaps between the run out bolting. Reaching the traverse left, though, the feet quickly become tiny and very polished, adding a fair degree of pumpiness. I lunge left into a jug on the 7a, but can't sort my feet out or reverse the move, so I fall off. I maintain that I was just giving Kate some practice catching lead falls, something she hadn't done much of before! I faff around cleaning the very diagonal route, then take both myself and Kate across the crag for a big swing down the hill.
Having run out of food and drink, we all bimble back to the Finca to refuel with some of last night's dhal before the evening session. We get a bit sidetracked by the climbing wall and trampoline at the Finca, and spend a while dossing around enjoying the grownup play area and frolicking on the rope ladder.
We might not have bothered walking back up the hill to Los Olivitos, but it's Lydia's last day so we need to squeeze in all the climbing we possibly can. Kate leads a slightly misled combo of George's Marvellous Medicine and Kobb Klubb Right, resulting in some horrible rope drag, but she wads through as usual. Opting just to do Kobb Klubb Right, Lydia gets to a spooky few moves on steep pockets and decides to bail off. This leaves me to climb and clean the route by headtorch, I was quite impressed by the cool juggy rock of the upper section. Now that it's dark, we skid down the steep slope back to the Finca, happy that we squeezed a route into Lydia's last evening.
Day 7 - Friday 19th December
Setting our sights on the long and sustained route up the tallest section of Frontales, Estrella Polar 6b, Sam and I get up nice and early at 6:30pm to walk into Frontales. We arrive at the crag to a magnificent sunrise which bathes both us and the crag with bright pink light, causing us to spin around and soak it up.
The first lead of an easy 5b pitch linked into the crux 6b pitch is mine, so I start straight up it after a much less eventful crag poo. From the top of the 5b pitch, I strike rightwards across an obvious line of bolts through a steep roof. It looks pretty tricky, but that lines up with what I've heard about this pitch so I wrangle with some tufas to make some upward progress. Giving up, I slump onto a bolt conveniently equipped with a bail biner (I didn't take the hint!), and begin to aid climb up and rightwards along the line of bolts. Before long, I'm completelty dangling in space, purely aiding across a horizontal line of bolts in the roof, and starting to think that perhaps this isn't the 6b pitch afterall! Reaching the last bolt, I have to commit to a short section of real climbing up to the belay, which turns out to be quite tricky and I cut my knuckle on sharp rock grabbing the chains. Pleased to be at the belay despite it being a very uncomfortable hanging belay, I look across to my left and see the actual line of Estrella Polar, a much more reasonable looking proposition - whoops. I also spot the actual belay for the 6b pitch in a comfortable looking niche above, which taunts me as I slowly lose feeling in my legs. Sam doesn't look best pleased as he seconds the pitch, but we're still in good spirit on the whole, joking that we've not fallen off the actual route. I grab a quick photo of Sam 'enjoying' the process.
Sam finally joins me at the hanging belay, and we quickly change over to send him up the next pitch which passes without incident, possibly due to actually being on route! My next 6a pitch is really good quality, if slightly poorly bolted, with a very cool off-balance crux a little way above the bolt. Sam seconds the pitch rapidly, and is soon bombing up his own 6a pitch which goes up an intimidating steep crack which is surpisingly easy and interesting. I lead next up a fun thin slab pitch, ending at a belay to the right of a large cave, bringing Sam quickly to face the 6b pitch up a steep groove above. We have a quick drink and snack, then Sam heads confidently up the crux pitch. Trying to round a small nose on poor holds, Sam's foot slips off a large polished hold but he stays on. Gathering himself and trying again, he reaches around further with his left foot and rocks onto it. Somehow cutting loose in this sequence again, he heaves up into the groove and has a good rest, pleased to have done the crux, and romps up the rest of the pitch. The sequence is a little bit strenuous to second with a rucksack on, but I'm soon through it and joining Sam at the next belay.
We pat ourselves on the back a little bit, having got through all the hard climbing (on the route) without falling off, and I set off up my 5c slab pitch which I expect to be nice and steady. Romping up it, I suddenly encounter a sequence where the holds seem to run out. Feeling a bit worried and trembling on the last good foot, I shout down to Sam "I'd better not fall off now!" before lunging into a jug on the right, which I luckily hold and move past. Phew!
Sam also doesn't fall, then leads a great easy pitch up a juggy wall leading to the penultimate belay. A team behind us is catching up by now but I think we'll just stay ahead of them as I quest up the scrambly 4c pitch to the final belay, and the top of the crag!
After coiling the rope, scrambing to the summit of the crag, and finishing our lunch, we begin the walk down to the Arab steps. The descent is simple, following the ridge with the help of some cairns, along some very cool blocky scrambling terrain on the ridge right along the summit of the crag - talk about exposure! Leaving the interesting terrain behind, we walk down and join the Arab steps path, embracing the long plod back to the Finca. Once back, we hear all about Nobby, Nellie, and Maddie's adventures on Lluvia, which seems to have gone well even if it did take them a little while. Ross and Kate have had a fun single pitch day, with Ross sending Little Brown Baby, the route we were trying yesterday, and Kate doing a few spicy sounding single pitches too!
Day 8 - Saturday 20th December
With Nobby heading off today, the rest of the squad heads to the station with him to make sure he gets safely on the train without getting too excited. After some barely contained shaking and dribbling, he's speeding southward on the train to Malaga.
Meanwhile, Ross and I are already at Bedees, a crag that I've been meaning to visit all week and it's now the last day. Known for its thin and technical face climbing, we both warm up excitedly on the 6a+ Shallow Niche to the left of the crag, a delicate and fun route. Moving swiftly on, Ross leads Central Line (6c+), which is steady for most of the way, then has a defined crux on poor feet and fingery pockets.
He makes it look super steady, so I'm feeling pretty encouraged to have a go with the draws in. I cruise up to below the crux, managing to put the clip in nice and high, avoiding the scary clip that Ross had warned me about. I commit to the poor feet, and tickle upward into some small pockets. My left foot slips and I think I'm off, but the right foot and two finger pocket keep me on, and I continue nervously up to clip the chains.
Feeling pretty pleased with both flashing 6c+ (perhaps a slightly soft one), we move onto a 7a on the right of the crag, Short Diagonal. Ross has a good go at the onsight, but goes the wrong way at the first crux and falls off. He checks out the rest of the route, explaining his beta to me after lowering off, then it's my turn! I avoid falling off the first crux by trending slightly right on small but positive holds. This leads upwards to a rest where I can stand on my feet before the second crux, but not quite clip. I stand up on my right foot, then focus on trying to match a diagonal slopey crimp, which is too poor and I fall off. Having another look, I realise I can bridge widely across into good feet in a white streak on the left and use an extra crimp around the corner on the left to access the victory jug.
I lower off and it's Ross' lead. After faffing for a while at the first crux, he manages to do it, has a good rest and blasts through the second crux to finish the route. My turn now, with freezing cold conditions - I'm actually climbing in a fleece! The good connies help me to climb the first crux smoothly and compose myself before the second crux. I trust the poor right foot and kick out left to bridge across the groove. Piano matching the slopey crimp is tenuous but just about works. From this wobbly position, convinced that my right foot is going to slip at any moment, I shakily put the clip in and grab the left crimp followed by the jug - I've done it. Romping to the top and clipping the chains feels great, and much more satisfying than my performance on Redders last year. I then discover that I'm able to scramble up a gully to the right to take some photos of Sam and Nellie both climbing together.
Feeling happy with my day's climbing, I head back the Finca with Sam to eat some food, then walk back up to Los Olivitos for a quick extra route on our last day. I'm quite intrigued by a 6b that Ross has said is quite hard for the grade and Kate insists is the 'worst 6b ever', Dogs in the Moonlight. It turns out to be more spooky than hard, with a third clip that you definitely want an attentive belayer for. The rest of the route is not too tricky, and I see a small bird on one of the jugs at the top, evoking unpleasant memories from last year. I lower off and Sam heads up in the last of the light, resting on the rope a couple of times.
We walk back down to the Finca in the dark for the last time, and enjoy some veg rice and couscous made with the last of our food. We finish off the wine and have a very pleasant evening playing cards, with me slowly starting to understand Cambio.
Day 9 - Sunday 21st December
It's our last day today and chucking it down with rain, so after cleaning and tidying the accomodation and handing in the key, we doss around playing pool in the big communal area. Sam and I go first and it takes us about 3 goes each before we manage to pot anything. Kate is watching us, sniggering with amusement, clearly of the mind that she can do better. Entertainingly, once Sam and I finally finish our game, Kate and I have a very close game where I somehow win in the end. Not so smug now!
With both Sam and Kate thrashed at pool, it's time to start the walk to the station in the rain. Donning our most waterproof layers (leaky puffies for most of us), we get nice and wet on the way to the station, then wait in the covered area of cafe for our train which is delayed by 25 minutes. Finally onboard, I watch Encantadas disappear for the last time as the train slips into a tunnel and southward to Malaga, rain running off the windows.
In Malaga, we suffer a fairly long walk with the bags to a small AirBnB that Sam, Nellie, Kate, and Maddie are staying in - amusingly with one wall made entirely of expanding foam. We have a quick trip to Lidl, where I sort out some totally conventional afternoon snacks: 1kg of oranges, raspberry soft cheese balls, and a chocolate croissant.
Deciding that we should do something with the rainy afternoon, Nellie, Maddie, and I decide to go for a quick run around Malaga. We run most of the way up the hill to the castle, stopping at the viewpoint, then visit the beach and harbour. We managed to navigate without looking at a map, which felt very impressive to me in the labyrinth of the old town.
The others fly through the shower, trying to be ready for their 18:30 walking tour of Malaga. They leave after some hurried goodbyes, leaving me to quickly shower before my bus at 18:35. A rapid powerwalk through town brings me to the bus station just in time, where I'm getting the bus to Nerja to spend Christmas with the parents. I hop on the bus, phone dead, staring out the window at the Christmas lights from the very warm bus, bringing an end to another amazing El Chorro trip.
